1.
Natural resources:
* Land: Lao Cai has a
natural area of 6,383.88 km2, high fertility, very fertile and
diversified, including 10 groups of land with 30 main types of soils, which are
very suitable for many different crops/plants. Of which: agricultural
production land is 135,527.45ha, forest land of 358747.69ha, specialized land of
17,975.66 ha, and the residential land of 4,888.66ha.
* Water: The dense
river system is distributed evenly across the province with two large rivers
flowing through the province namely the Red River and Chay River, which
originates from China and other thousands of large and small rivers and
streams, which is a good condition for Lao Cai to develop small and medium
hydropower projects. In the province, there are four mineral water sources, hot
water with a temperature of 40oC and super-fresh water in Sa Pa district, which
has not yet been exploited and used.
* Forest: There are
51,905 m3 of timber in the whole province (225 m3 of
natural forest, 51,680 m3 of planted timber, 15,580 m3 of
paper wood); 1,196,000 bamboo of all kinds. The planned area for the forestry
land is 358,747.69 ha, accounting for 56.2% of the total natural area of the
province.
Hoang Lien National Park (Sa Pa) is rich in natural
ecosystems (there are 2,024 species of plants belonging to 200 families,
including 66 species in the Red Book of Vietnam, 32 species of rare species, 11
endangered species such as Calocedrus macrolepis; tsuga dumosa; pines;
conifers, etc. There are 66 mammal species including 16 species listed in the
Vietnam Red Book such as Birds, mammals, reptiles, many species rare and
precious plant and animal species, treasures of rare plant genetic resources that
is accounted for 50% of rare species of Vietnam.
* Minerals: Lao Cai
is one of the richest mineral resources provinces in Vietnam with 35 different
minerals and over 150 mines. There are many kinds of minerals such as apatite,
copper, iron, graphite, materials for ceramics, porcelain, glass ... with the
largest reserves in the country. Some large mines are easy to be exploited,
easy to be transported and have international markets that facilitates the
development of the local mineral processing industries.
2.
Economic potentials
* Industrial
potential:
- Lao Cai is rich in
mineral resources with more than 35 different typess of minerals and 150
valuable mines, including many kinds of high quality and large reserves. There
are apatite with 2.1 to 2.5 billion tons, iron with 137 million tons, copper,
gold, graphite, rare earth, feldspar, ceramic materials, glass porcelain, etc.
- Many kinds of
minerals have beeng exploited for deep processing in Lao Cai such as apatite,
copper.
- Lao Cai has a great
potential for hydropower.
* Agro-forestry development potential
Lao Cai’s topography
is diverssed in which the high area and the low one are clearly distibuted. It is
classified into the tropical monsoon climate that is divided into two regions:
highland and lowland. In the highland, the average temperature is from 15°C to
20°C with sub-tropical climate which is cool in summer and cold in winter. That
climate condition is very suitable for temperate crops such as apples, pear,
peach, plum, rose, lily, cymbals, herbs, cold water fish such as salmon,
sturgeon. These products are all special that are not available in lowland
provinces, which makes an unique potential and strength of Lao Cai. In the
lowland, the average temperature ranges from 23°C to 29°C, including communes
along the Red River and part of Chay River. The region is characterized by
tropical humid climate, which suitable for cultivating the tropical fruits such
as pineapples, bananas, oranges, tangerines, especially for growing tea and
tobacco... At the same time, it has favorabale conditions to raise cattle,
poultry and to develop aquaculture (fish living in warm water, blue shrimp
...).
Lao Cai has potential
for forestry development, the production forest land occupies 45% out of
agricultural land.
* Trade potential -
Border gate economy
Lao Cai has a pair of
international border gates of Lao Cai and Hekou (railway and road) with 3
custom clearance points which are Lao Cai International Railway Station, Nam
Thi River Crossing Bridge and Red River Crossing Bridge. Red River Crossing Bridge connects between Ha
Noi - Lao Cai Expressway (Vietnam) and Hekou - Kunming Expressway (China),
which is an important bridge in the economic corridor of Kunming, Lao Cai,
Hanoi, Hai Phong, also the gateway of Vietnam and other ASEAN countries and the
center of the North-South Corridor in cooperation between the Greater Mekong
Subregion (GMS) and the Southwest market of China. Lao Cai International Border
Gate is the only border gate in the North of Vietnam located inside a
provincial city, which is equiped with service system of an typed III urban as
well as services for trade transportation, logicstics, cargo inspection, ICD
port.
Since 2001, border
trade fair has been organized rotatedly and annually between Lao Cai,Vietnam
and Hekou district, Yunnan province, China, attracting a large number of
domestic and foreign businesses.
* Tourism potential
Lao Cai has many
resources with unique features to develop tourism such as the highest peak of
Fansipan mountain in Indochina; several famous tourist attractions with cool
weather like Bac Ha, Sa Pa, ancient mysterious rocks, national or world ranked
historical sites, diversed culture of 25 ethnic groups with the typical culture
of writing, costumes, housing styles, culinary and spiritual culture... Lao Cai
is a regional tourism center in the Northwestern mountainous region and also
the border gate province, bordered by Yunnan, a potential tourism province of
China. This is one of favorable conditions for Lao Cai to develop its tourism industry.
Lao Cai has been endowed with many advantages from geography and tourism
resources that contributes to developing many types of tourism such as cultural
tourism, resort tourism, ecotourism, sightseeing tours, sports tourism, science
research tourism./.
(Data on total forest area and land extracted
from the statistics provided by the Provincial Department of Statistics
recorded by 1st January 2015)